Job summary
We are seeking an experienced, dynamic and forward-thinking Consultant Practitioner Psychologist to lead and develop psychological services Suffolk wide in our acute and crisis pathway. You will be joining at a time of opportunity for the development of services in line with NHS England guidance for adult acute mental health services and you will link with the Trust's Model of Care Plus project, led by Michael Seaman, one of our Trust's Deputy Director's of Nursing.
Your clinical work will be based at Wedgwood House, Bury St Edmunds or Woodlands, Ipswich. The acute adult pathway includes 4 busy acute mental health inpatient wards, a PICU, the Mental Health Liaison and Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams and the First Response Service (FRS).
Main duties of the job
You will provide leadership and further develop the work of the adult acute psychology and therapies teams. In West Suffolk, there is currently an 8b Psychologist and two Assistant Psychologists, and an 8a Clinical Psychologist, who works on the older people's ward, under the leadership of the Older Adult Consultant Psychologist. In East Suffolk, there is an 8b Psychologist and an Assistant Psychologist (working age adults), an 8a psychologist, a CAP and an Assistant Psychologist (older adults), 2 arts psychotherapists, plus trainees on placement from the UEA D Clin Psy course and trainee arts psychotherapists. The teams are highly effective, valued and supportive team, and will be a pleasure to lead. Pioneering and exciting work is being carried out on supporting discharge and using formulation. You will be an active member of the senior clinical team and be involved in strategic level developments and clinical governance across the working age adult pathway. You will have the opportunity to work closely with the other Suffolk Consultant Psychologists (Older Adults, Adult Community and Learning Difficulties and Autism), to ensure consistency of service Suffolk wide. It's a friendly and highly supportive senior team. Your leadership and clinical development will be supported through relevant training courses and programmes. We want to hear from you if you are currently an 8c or an 8b who wishes to make a progression in your career.
About us
Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.
Here in Suffolk at Wedgwood and Woodlands we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, friendly and supportive team. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you'll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We're an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key duties will include:
Clinical leadership: The Consultant would provide clinical leadership. They would contribute to development of the policies and procedures of the acute services, train and mentor less experienced colleagues and identify needs for innovation to improve the quality and effectiveness of the services for which they are responsible.
Clinical Skills: The Consultant would be expected to hold a small clinical caseload of the most complex admissions to the acute service and to closely supervise other staff working with such people.
Service design and development: They would be expected to take a role in developing both the quality of the psychological therapy services and contribute to the development of new, evidence- based initiatives in the wider services including Model of Care +.
Clinical Governance: There is a new structure to strengthen the quality of multidisciplinary clinical governance of the acute services both locally and across the Trust. It would be expected that the Consultant Psychologist would provide significant input to this process as part of the senior clinical leadership of the acute services.
Monitoring of the quality of the service & learning from incidents: It is expected that the Consultant Psychologist would provide input and leadership to initiatives measuring the quality of the services provided and the processes by which lessons are learned from incidents.
Recruitment & retention: there are significant, historic difficulties recruiting and retaining staff both in the psychological therapies team and more widely in the acute pathway. The Consultant Psychologist will be expected to lead on recruitment to the psychological therapies team and contribute to service wide initiatives to improve staff retention in the adult pathway.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key duties will include:
Clinical leadership: The Consultant would provide clinical leadership. They would contribute to development of the policies and procedures of the acute services, train and mentor less experienced colleagues and identify needs for innovation to improve the quality and effectiveness of the services for which they are responsible.
Clinical Skills: The Consultant would be expected to hold a small clinical caseload of the most complex admissions to the acute service and to closely supervise other staff working with such people.
Service design and development: They would be expected to take a role in developing both the quality of the psychological therapy services and contribute to the development of new, evidence- based initiatives in the wider services including Model of Care +.
Clinical Governance: There is a new structure to strengthen the quality of multidisciplinary clinical governance of the acute services both locally and across the Trust. It would be expected that the Consultant Psychologist would provide significant input to this process as part of the senior clinical leadership of the acute services.
Monitoring of the quality of the service & learning from incidents: It is expected that the Consultant Psychologist would provide input and leadership to initiatives measuring the quality of the services provided and the processes by which lessons are learned from incidents.
Recruitment & retention: there are significant, historic difficulties recruiting and retaining staff both in the psychological therapies team and more widely in the acute pathway. The Consultant Psychologist will be expected to lead on recruitment to the psychological therapies team and contribute to service wide initiatives to improve staff retention in the adult pathway.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Training in clinical psychology at postgraduate doctoral level, as accredited by the BPS (British Psychological Society) or equivalent
- Registration with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
Experience
Essential
- Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist for a minimum of six years
- Experience of working with service users within the designated specialty
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for service users' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan of a multi-disciplinary care plan
- Experience of teaching, training professional and clinical supervision
Desirable
- Post qualification experience within the designated specialty where the post is located
- Experience of leading qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists
- Experience of representing the profession
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
- Supervising and training others to do research
- Management and leadership experience
Other
Essential
- Ability to travel independently
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Training in clinical psychology at postgraduate doctoral level, as accredited by the BPS (British Psychological Society) or equivalent
- Registration with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist
Desirable
- Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice
Experience
Essential
- Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist for a minimum of six years
- Experience of working with service users within the designated specialty
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for service users' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified care co-ordinator and also within the context of a multi-disciplinary care plan of a multi-disciplinary care plan
- Experience of teaching, training professional and clinical supervision
Desirable
- Post qualification experience within the designated specialty where the post is located
- Experience of leading qualified and pre-qualified clinical psychologists
- Experience of representing the profession
- Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts
- Supervising and training others to do research
- Management and leadership experience
Other
Essential
- Ability to travel independently
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
